Re: Normalizing vs. Denormalizing

Suu Quan wrote:
>
> :comp.databases.oracle / Will Kooiman <wkooiman_at_csac.com> / 2:58 pm Mar 20, 1996 /
> >a normalized design will outperform a denomalized design.
>
> I experienced the exact opposite.
>

"Horses for courses"
i.e. Your design should be optimised for the performance to the transactions/queries

     you will actually perform.

I am sure that your experiences are both true but represent experience of different types of usage.      

At the risk of over-generalising :

• a normalised design is probably better where you have many UPDATES
• a denormalised design is probably better where you have many QUERIES

You need to decide which types of transaction/query you want to optimise for, before deciding to NORMALISE or DE-NORMALISE.

Kevin

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